"The U.S. Electric Power Sector and
Climate Change Mitigation" Granger Morgan, Jay Apt, and Lester Lave

Abstract
Stabilizing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at twice the level of
pre-industrial times is likely to require emissions reductions of 65-85
percent below current levels by 2100. Clearly, reductions of this magnitude
can be achieved only by taking action globally and across all sectors of the
economy. But the electricity sector will undoubtedly need to assume a major
share of the burden—in the United States and worldwide—given its centralized
structure and contribution to overall emissions.

This report explores the electric power
industry’s options for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions over the next
half century. Those options include new technologies that are still being
developed—such as coal gasification with carbon capture and sequestration—as
well as strategies that rely on existing technologies at different stages of
commercial and technical readiness (such as nuclear and renewable generation),
lower-carbon fuels (like natural gas), and efficiency improvements (both at
the point of electricity production and end use). Many of these options, in
addition to reducing CO2 emissions, also reduce conventional air pollutants.